Digital Maps for Plants and Factories (July 2024)

Digital maps for way-finding, to track assets, and to enable inventory audits for better equipment maintenance and services have been desired by virtually every facilities manager that manages large buildings and factories. But, the vast majority still use paper maps or static plans, so assets are tracked on a spreadsheet, audits take forever, and third-party service contractors get lost repeatedly and repair the wrong mechanical, causing cost increase and customer dissatisfaction. This article examines the reasons why the transition to a digital, dynamic map is only happening now.

Implementing a digital mapping strategy for plants, mills, mines, warehouses, and commercial buildings has been daunting to some facilities managers, why is that? First, most legacy digital maps are expensive; budget needs to be approved in advance; annual contracts are non-trivial sums. So, what is the alternative? There are cloud-based mapping software applications that are affordable and built for facilities management. These cloud-based solutions bring dynamic maps to web, mobile phones, tablets, and touch screen kiosks. These solutions’ pricing models have recurring fees that are affordable and comparable to popular cloud software. InMapz is an example of such a digital maps software; you can try it and your work routine will be transformed.

A second reason why digital map implementation has been slow to happen is the enormity of work required with many mapping platforms. First you find your floor plans, which you might not have or it is not current; then plans and drawings need to be digitized, which takes weeks or even months; and to integrate digital maps into your facilities software requires in-house IT resources that might not be available. Then there is the deployment that could require additional hardware to be approved and sourced. That’s a lot of work for a Facilities Director or Plant Manager. So, from start to finish the projects can take a year to complete and hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement.  You don’t have to go that route. There are turnkey, out-of-the box solutions that cost a fraction of the money.

You want to look for a digital map solution that is affordable, fast to implement, and turnkey that does not require in-house IT resource.  These solutions can take a floor plan and convert it to a digital map in 2 weeks; ready to be go live in 3 to 4 weeks, and user training can be completed in less than one hour; your team will be using the new app and dynamic maps and improve productivity immediately. There is this one thing though – your team will get addicted to this new app just like we do with coffee…… and your output goes up, productivity is high, employee morale improves, you will start recovering your investments from day one. You want to see how? Check out this short video.

You already have FM software? No problem, these new digital maps can integrate via a software API (Application Programming Interface) to most popular software programs and these maps seamlessly integrate. Forget about months, it takes a couple of weeks to implement, it’s a full turnkey solution and simple to use. 

Not all maps are made equal, some are more equal. The boss will be happy, your team will be happy, the IT team is happy, and you will be the happiest.

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